The focus of our paper is on the competitive effects of the proposed VAT regime relative to selected alternatives. We also highlight the welfare effects of various VAT scenarios. While an exempt operator cannot reclaim VAT paid on inputs (relevant for non-labor inputs only) and therefore faces...

In most member states of the European Union (EU), universal postal services provided by the incumbent operator are exempt from value added taxes (VAT) on the grounds that they are the “public postal service.” Other postal service providers have to charge VAT at the standard rate. The paper...

Introducing competition to the railway market is a long and difficult process and it is still ongoing. The fourth railway package has been adopted making market opening in passenger railways mandatory in the upcoming years. Therefore the debate is now evolving from a theoretical conversation to...

In recent years new developments in the railway market have brought about several new insights about the effects of competition in the sector. In the context of a workshop in Madrid organised by the UNED University in the realm of the research project REGUTRAIN, some practical cases in Europe...

This paper presents a game-theoretic model of a liberalized railway market, in which train operation and ownership of infrastructure are vertically separated. We analyze how the regulatory agency will optimally set the charges that operators have to pay to the infrastructure manager for access...

This paper discusses the main aspects of the competitive and regulatory state of the postal sector. It presents the different models for postal competition and regulation in the EU and the US and their history, together with their implications on regulation, with a focus on universal services...